In the Fall of 2019 before the onset of the Pandemic, there was no small controversy after the bishops of Italy, asked for, and received from Pope Francis, permission to improve the translation of the final line of the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of the equivalent in English, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” the updated Liturgical books for the Dioceses of Italy will now read, “Do not let us to fall into temptation, but deliver us from Evil.”
Opponents of the Pope, and sadly, they are not all that few in the church, seized upon this as an opportunity to criticize Francis for overstepping his authority saying he has no right, even as Pope, to change what the Lord himself had said. Yet, while some of those protesting the change may indeed be ignorant of the quite legitimate question that has persisted across the ages as to what Jesus did in fact actually say, or rather how to say in other languages what Jesus actually meant when he spoke in Aramaic, there are others, clerics especially, who if they paid attention during even the most basic scripture classes in seminary would have to know better!
Aramaic is not a Romance language and it certainly doesn’t translate word for word exactly into languages based upon Latin such as those languages spoken in much of Western Europe. The Gospels were not written in either Aramaic or Hebrew which are the languages that Jesus actually spoke, but rather in Greek which was the universal language in the world during the last third of the First Century when the gospels were written down.
The actual Greek words at the end of the Lord’s Prayer which have been traditionally translated into English as “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from “ are not as precise as some would want to believe them to be and can quite legitimately be translated as they have been for years in Spanish liturgical books and more recently in French, as “do not let us fall into temptation,” and when all is said and done, as Pope Francis pointed out, this is a much better theology and thus necessarily better reflection of what Jesus had to mean in the original Aramaic – as God does not lead us into temptation, but strengthens us from becoming vulnerable to it; from Genesis on it is clear that the tempting of human beings away from God’s commands is primarily the work of the Evil One!
So, while there is no change yet requested for the Liturgical book in English, it is not beyond possible or even probable that this could take place. Should it take place let us be prepared for it with knowledge much more than with mere personal piety or custom, we might do so if from time to time when in our own personal prayer we are saying The Lord’s Prayer we improve the translation of the final line by substituting – “do not let us fall into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (or “the Evil one” which is also a valid interpretation of the Biblical Greek), and see how right this may come to feel, and eventually be accustomed to how it would sound if our Liturgical Books were ever to be updated with this change. (end)
I reference Crossan’s understanding of the reason for the original and current version. He proposes that “temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer has a very specific meaning, not a general one. He proposes that “Jesus, growing up in the years after that military incursion around Nazareth in 4 BCE, would have heard over and over again about the year the Romans came. From all that talk, what did young Jesus decide about God and Rome, homeland and empire, rebellion and resistance, violence and nonviolence? Where was Israel’s God on the day of Rome’s revenge? Was the biblical and covenantal God of Israel violent or nonviolent?”
Crossan continues: “That content presumes those just mentioned options of non-violent or violent resistance before, during, and after the life of Jesus. It specifically asks God not to “lead us into” – yes lead us into – the temptation of violent resistance to Rome’s violent domination. Instead, it asks God to deliver us from that evil action or that evil one. It is, in other words, about avoiding violence even or especially when undertaken to hallow God’s name, to establish God’s kingdom, and thereby to fulfill God’s will “as in heaven so on earth.” Crossan has three arguments to support his proposal, and they are convincing, at least to me.
And, is there an example of God leading Jesus into temptation? There is in Mark where it reads:
On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
God, as Spirit, led (drove) Jesus into the desert where he was tempted – by Satan. We all know of those three temptations Jesus successfully resisted. We also are tempted in similar ways, and we tend to succumb. So, God, please, lead us not into temptation.
Deacon David Pierce
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